Ap Gov't Midterm Review

1. Who creates the budget? The Congress and the President work together to create the budget. The president would create a budget plan and congress would have to pass it. Mandatory spending would include medicaid, medicare and social security because the people are entitled to it. That’s called entitlements. Another form of mandatory spending is debt. Discretionary spending is something like the military which we don’t need to spend. 

2. Mc. Culloch v. Maryland:

Marbury v. Madison:

3. How can a president disagree with a Supreme court’s decision? (Hint: Think back to Cherokee v. Georgia)

4. How can Congress gain research and oversight? 

• Oversight committee:

• Select committee: temporary to investigate

• Standing committees:

• Conference committee: temporary but to negotiate their differences

5. After a census is taken what do you have to do?

• After redistricting is reappropriating

6. What’s gerrymandering and what’s the purpose of it? Is it legal or not?

7. Which group believed in a strong central government? 

• Hamilton → Federalists

• Thomas Jefferson → Anti federalists

8. Why did Hamilton not want the Bill of Rights?

• He thought that if you wrote something down he believed that the government would be given more control or power to control the Bill of Rights

• The Articles of the Constitution would protect everyone since they established what the government could and not do → can be found in the Federalist Papers

9. What part of Congress only uses the filibuster?

• The Senate only uses the filibuster and to end the filibuster they use the cloture

10. Define logrolling:

11. Define rider:

• Where you attach something to a bill so that way it can pass along with it since it won’t pass on its own

12. Define Trustee:

• A congressman who acts based on what the people voted for and what they act on what the people want

13. Define delegate:

• Someone who acts based on what they believe that their constituents will benefit from

14. Gibbons v. Ogden: 

• Strengthens the interstate commerce clause

• Gave Congress the power to make laws that involve commerce

15. United States v. Lopez:

• Made commerce clause weaker for the federal government

Supremacy clause: favors federal

10th Amendment: favors the states

Commerce clause: favors federal

Necessary and proper clause: favors federal 

Enumerated powers: grants powers to the federal government

Concurrent powers: grants powers to both the federal government and the state gov’t

Reserved powers: grants powers to the state

Majority leader: runs the senate

Speaker of the house: runs the House

The President can pass an executive order if there’s an emergency or when Congress is stuck at gridlock. 

Divided gov’t: When the Senate is one party and the House is the other party

25th Amendment: if the president has suffered a chronic/terminal illness, then the majority of his Cabinet to remove the president (technically the president is incapacitated)

If the federal and the state government are working together they are cooperative federalism, but if the federal and the state government aren’t working together they are dual federalism

Federal government can influence the state government; they can influence them by using grants. 

Mandates: where it’s mandatory but it’s not necessarily funded

Categorical grants: use it for a specific purpose

Block grant: general purpose

Conditions of aid: They must do this under one condition they have this law enacted

Devolution: give the states more power through block grants which is generally favored by the Republicans

→ example drinking age isn’t federal but every state has it because it’s a grant

Lobbying: bureaucratic agencies, interest groups influencing Congress to pass legislation that works in their favor

How would you describe our laws throughout the country?
They’re different and they’re not the same → Diverse 

→ ex: abortion laws are diff, death penalties, drivers license

National laboratory:

Colorado marijuana laws where they legalized marijuana and other states would observe to see if those laws were working. 

Who controls the gov’t?

What can the census do? 

• They can count how many demographics are in the country 

Process to amend the constitution?

Understand the Dec of Independence

• Declared our independence from GB and gave moral justification on why we wanted to (breakup letter)

Passage from fed 50:

• If men were angels no government would be necessary

Senatorial courtesy:

Where you ask an opinion on someone from your own party

House of Representatives can do this to get it out of the committee:

• Discharge petition